Battlestar: Horizons
by ChaoslordZX
Summary: Alone two battlestars fight for their survival against all odds. With their crews exahusted they keep a dwindiling hope that there may be survivors elsewhere. They run until their reserves are drained and finally the Cylon fleet closes in.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Please note that I do not own Battlestar Galactica or any of its affiliates and that absolutely no profit is intended to made from this. I am not intentionally making any copyright infringements of any sort by doing this.

That aside I give you Battlestar: Horizons

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><p>A War for Survival<p>

_2 hours before Cylon attack_

BATTLESTAR REVELATION:

The rhythmic hum came first, the throbbing of the mighty engines that pulsed beneath him, and then the annoying beeping of the alarm clock that was placed on his bedside table. Venerus sat up in bed pushing off the covers and then stared aimlessly at the bulkhead in front of him. His thoughts gathered slowly as life came back into focus. Two days from Scorpion Shipyards, two days before the Revelation gets ripped apart and glued back together again. Venerus sighed as he pushed himself into a standing position, where the artificial gravity of the battlestar almost pulled him back down.

Teetering on the verge of collapsing, Venerus grabbed the wall and steadied himself. He shook his head and stumbled over to the commanders' desk where he sat down, and looked through the stack of manila envelops. He slid his hand through his slightly graying hair. He had to find a new CAG now that Amanda was leaving.

Gods damn that stuck up little bitch. The best pilot he had ever seen, and a fine leader as well. Amanda could look a nugget flyer in the eyes and they would go out and win a fight. Now she had a promotion given to her, she was becoming a major. Venerus remembered when he left the cockpit for the battlestar's CIC almost fifteen years earlier. It was a very big change for him.

The first few manila folders had the names of the wing leaders in them, not surprising. Lillian did her job well but probably didn't think about finding new wing leaders. Venerus pulled out a pen and started circling names for a possible candidate for a new CAG. He looked the file up and down. A fully loaded Orion class battlestar held five thousand vipers and their pilots while holding eleven thousand extra vipers, finding a CAG capable of handling a group that size was rather difficult.

He put the folder aside and had just moved on to the next one when the heavy sound of a fist impacting the metal bulkhead rang throughout the CO's quarters. It startled Venerus slightly but he quickly composed himself and looked at the blank bulkhead with the double triangle door imprinted on it.

"Enter," Venerus said as his cold voice carried quite far for the little effort he put into saying it.

Amanda Shay walked in, her black hair pulled into a crisp bun, and her uniform buttoned perfectly without even a wrinkle. Her collar was still adorned with the captains wings, but Venerus new that would change fairly soon. She walked up to the desk as Venerus rose to his full height to salute her.

"Commander," Amanda said addressing Venerus.

"Is there something you wanted major?" Venerus responded.

A silence followed for a moment before Amanda finally broke the silence, "I just wanted to tell you that it was an honor to serve with you, and I hope I get the chance to serve under you again."

"It's a well earned promotion, you deserve it," Venerus extended his arm.

Their hands grasped one another's and shook with militaristic precession before they both let go. Venerus brought his hand to his brow in a salute and Amanda followed suit. They held their position for a moment and then Venerus brought his hand down.

"Will that be all?" Venerus asked.

"Yes sir" Amanda said.

Amanda turned around and exited the room. Venerus sat down again; this was going to be a very long two days.

Amanda walked down the hallway. The humming of the fluorescent lighting buzzed in her ears. The sound of fatigued metal reached her very sensitive ears. The Revelation always creaked, it was so fracking massive that the lateral and structural support creaked and groaned. Granted she would miss this ship, but she would not miss the maze like design of the Revelation's hallways.

Her destination was the mess hall, she was starving after all, but she had to think of where the mess hall closest to her location was. She stopped for a moment and then saw a map on the side of the wall; she glanced at it and found that it was only a deck above her. She turned around and headed for the ladder.

Everywhere she went Amanda got the doe eyed stares of men who seemed intent on staring at her ample chest. She liked the attention but often found the whole thing repulsive. Of all the things Amanda was, she wasn't frack toy. Stupid men, she hated them, all of them after _him_. Each time her mind floated to that subject a pang of pain shot through her like a bolt of lightning. She shook the thought off as she reached the ladder.

"Demeter!" Came a voice from behind her.

She turned around; one of her pilots was jogging towards her. It was Hades, nicknamed after the god of the underworld; he did have the highest kill count on training drones in the squadron.

"Lieutenant, what is it?" Amanda said with a slightly more arrogant tone than she intended.

"I just wanted to wish you luck," the lieutenant stumbled over his words like a young puppy.

"Luck has to nothing to do with my accomplishments, Lieutenant," Amanda swung her hair back and off of her face, "but I appreciate the sentiment, thank you."

"Of course," Hades said with a boyish smile.

"Is that all?" Amanda said as the young lieutenant

"Yes," The boy stuttered and then he walked away with a quick salute. Amanda smiled, that young kid had had a crush on her since the day the two met. He was handsome enough, and cute, but he was skittish. If he ran into a real Cylon his balls would drop off, assuming he had any.

Amanda sighed heavily as she grasped the rung on the ladder and began to climb up the terrifying tube that held the ladder. One hundred and twenty three decks made up the impressive Orion class Battlestar that she had served on since she was a young lieutenant herself. She smiled remembering days where she thought she'd never make it into the CIC. Now she was almost there.

She reached the mess hall fairly quickly after getting to the subsequent deck. After grabbing the tray of that horrible food that every military officer learns to love, that was made available to her she sat down, to be joined shortly by Lieutenant Jackson Reed.

Jackson walked down the hall smiling at his mastery of flirting with women, even Amanda. Especially Amanda, he had chatted her up, wow what a master male he was. Now all he had to do is get in the chicks pants before she left for her promotion. Jackson was now on his way to speak with the marine captain about acquisitions for the armory as soon as they docked at Scorpion.

In his hand Jack carried a checklist of all the things they had and needed ammo replenishing. It wasn't very thick; after all they had not dealt with anything difficult enough to really warrant pulling out guns. The worst they had to deal with was a few angry pirates. He came to the ladder and grabbed on and descended to deck seventy-nine. That was a very long way down. After a rather labor intensive decent Jack stepped out onto the deck and walked towards the armory.

As he approached the armory he heard intensive clunking from within the training area. Entering he saw a man fly past him and impact a wall, and get up rubbing the back of his head. In the center of the room was Talon Grey taking on three more of his marines, and doing very well at it too.

"Yeah baby!" Talon cried as he smashed another marine into the bulkhead, "Bring it on!"

Jack almost smiled as three marines get knocked on their asses. The last two were in combat now, the young private Emma Lean and Talon Grey duked it out. Honestly, Emma was going up against impossible odds but she held her own for a while. Not bad for a new recruit, but Talon brought her to the ground eventually and then picked up a towel and wiped his forehead off.

Jack walked over to Emma and offered to help her up. She looked at him with a glare that might have frozen methane. Jack let go and backed away with his hands in the air.

"Just trying to help," Jack confessed.

"Mmmmhmmm," Said Emma now pulling on her uniform and buttoning it.

"Is there a reason you are in my training area Lieutenant?" Came the booming voice of the Marine captain.

Jack turned around and saluted. He extended his hand holding the clipboard with all the info he had been requested to deliver. Talon took it a flipped through papers. Jack was sure the paper would rip and fly off as Talon pushed aside all five pages.

"You can put in requests for whatever you might need," Jack said.

"Right, and that'll make it happen," Said Talon, "They never respond, check everything for me and take it back to the commander."

"Are we low on everything?" Jack raised his eyebrows in confusion and astonishment.

"Of course not, but having more never hurts. Now run along lieutenant," Talon said, saluting half-heartedly.

Flirting with his marines, and trying to break their hearts now, Talon would see that tech officer ripped to pieces. Shaking his head the huge marine captain walked into the locker room where he finished wiping off the sweat and pulled on his uniform. Closing his locker with a slam causing most of the tired marines to jump. This also served to get their attention.

"Excellent training session," Talon said, "Emma, nice blocking, watch your lower body that's important. York look for swings to your sides; that took you off guard, the rest of you work on blocks, I won far too easily … actually I won which shouldn't have happened. Otherwise you guys are improving; you've all earned yourselves a shitty ass meal so go eat it."

There was a reverberating chuckle that passed around the locker room. They gathered their things and left in a single file leaving Talon all alone. He sat down pulling out his mouth guard and removing his gloves. He shook his head after putting his stuff away. He stepped out into the training room, Talon appreciated how the training room, armory and bullet factory were all part of the same area in the Revelation. It made life much simpler than it was on other battlestars on which he had served.

The hall lights always gave him a headache; the fluorescent bright white blasting light drove him nuts. He covered his eyes for a moment and let them adjust and then kept walking. Talon's heritage from Virgon gave his skin a black color that had always screamed his heritage, making it harder to climb the ladder of ranks the military set out for all of them. He had though.

"Well if it isn't the muscular man," Came a soft voice from behind him, "how's the claw today?"

Standing behind him was an officer, with beautiful golden hair that was cut to medium length with braids throughout it. Her uniform held the wings of colonel, but she was young. Her eyes were piercing blue, almost scary to look at, especially when she was angry.

"Colonel," Said Talon saluting.

She smiled her beautiful white death glistened, "formalities."

"Is there something I can do for you?" Talon asked.

"You and me, tonight in my quarters involving my clothes and bed," She said and then moved on. Talon smiled, that woman was almost as insane as he was.

Lillian walked down the hall her mouth stuck in a smile. She ran her hand through her hair. As she turned towards the CIC a young deck hand flagged her down. His neon orange jumpsuit stood out from the cold navy blue of the rest of the crew's uniform.

"The chief wants a word, sir," he said saluting.

"At ease before you strain something," Lillian said, "Do you know what she wishes to discuss with me."

"No sir, I think it might be about the Mark IX viper. I don't think she believes we have enough storage space," The young man said.

Lillian nodded and waved the young man along. She turned around in the hall and sighed. She hoped that when they brought the Revelation in for its overhaul they would install some of the fancy elevators that some of the other battlestar's had. Heading towards the end of the corridor she reached the ladder and began the long climb down to the flight deck. As she approached 65 she swung off and landed on the deck and headed towards the port-landing bay, where she knew Arway's office was.

The landing bay always gave Lillian chills because it was beyond huge. The entrance was on the third level up, which looked out over the massive cavern that was the landing bay. And this was just the upper deck to the actual hanger, the lower one was separated by what could be called the floor, or the ceiling for those farther below. The outer doors had been shut and men were sweeping the runway while others were busy at vipers. Sparks flew out of some of the vipers as men repaired them while others released steam or nothing at all. The Landing bay was almost a giant spaceport, like the one in Caprica city.

Lillian descended the ladder that lead to the main deck of the landing bay. She spread her feet apart and placed them on the long rails and then used her hands to stabilized herself, and slid three stories to the ground where she landed with a small clunking sound. She smiled, this ship was a mighty and beautiful thing, and she was her XO. A smile of pride walked across her face.

"Colonel," Came a voice from behind her.

She turned around to see Sara Arway standing there with a cigar in her mouth. She put the Cigar out in an ashtray and walked over to the colonel, her face and hands covered in grease. Otherwise her white blond hair was pulled into a bun. Arway was the pinnacle of no nonsense.

Arway wiped off her face with a towel, when she saw the towel after pulling it from her face it was clammy and covered in black grease. She sat down at her desk, which was filled with the smell of engine lubricant, and sweaty human being. Not the most pleasant combination. That was the life of a deck chief in the colonial fleet though.

"How did it go?" Came the voice of Ryan, one of her deck hands, from the door.

"Fine," Arway replied, "I think I made my point about the vipers."

Ryan nodded and then went to duck out; Arway reached out and grabbed him. He looked startled for a moment, and then relaxed and turned to face her.

"What's the status of the deck?" She asked.

"Good to go," Said Ryan, "Both of them."

Arway smiled and let him go. Ryan left, perhaps more quickly than he meant to. Sara smiled as she sat down again. On the table in front of her was the next day's repair schedule filed by Captain Shay. Several vipers were named, but at the bottom there was a sticky note. She picked up and read it.

At least you won't have to deal with me.

Arway smiled and let out a laugh. That girl was a real pain in the neck to deal with. She looked out for her own, however, and even Amanda respected that. After all what's a leader without the follower? She pushed the file aside, and stretched her back, it had been a long week, getting the Revelation is perfect shape for inspection by Admiral Cain.

Now there was a fellow woman that Amanda had no respect for what so ever. She was tough, strong and encouraging when she had to be, but something always rubbed Sara the wrong way with that Admiral. She had in fact run into her several times at conferences and special dinners that the two had been invited to. A social gathering that she couldn't get out of. Developing the Valkyrie class battlestar's weapon systems had its down side. There was a thunking at the door.

Arway looked up to see a young man, about twenty three years at the oldest walk into her office. It was the com officer from the CIC who had taken some of his own time to help rewire the intercom system in the landing bay. A good man … almost an oxymoron.

"It's done, Chief," Said the young petty officer.

"Thank you, Mr. Moore, I know your shift on the bridge starts shortly," Sara smiled, she knew the four to twelve watch was one of the worst one could be assigned to outside of one's own full watch.

The young man nodded and left the room. Sara smiled and leaned back in her chair, the only comfy thing on the whole Flight deck.

Shiak Moore was top of his class, Geminon was his home world and he was damn proud of it. He had earned his way onto a battlestar, granted it wasn't a permanent posting nor was it a true officer's posting, however, it was a step in the right direction.

Shiak walked directly into the tube that led up to deck 49 where the CIC was located. He began to climb the ladder, he had fixed the COM system inside the landing bay and helping others always put a smile Shiak's face. The young petty officer had a spark inside him that day, partly because he was on several cups of coffee but he also was about to get his transmission from Colonial command and he was sure he had gotten promoted to lieutenant.

The climb took Shiak longer than he had expected and by the time he finally stepped off the ladder he found himself wishing to be posted on a Battlestar with elevators, or possibly just a smaller battlestar. Either way he walked to the other side of the deck and into the CIC. This was the heart of the great ship Shiak was serving on. It was designed like most of them, with a conglomeration of information centers and computer consoles creating a semi circle, much like the coliseum on Caprica. There were two levels of these computer consoles, but Shiak had entered on the upper level and climbed yet another ladder down to the floor.

On the floor of the CIC was a central console where seven people sat around controlling the various battle systems of the battlestar. Two his left was the semi circle of secondary consoles, in front of Shiak was the seven person circular command post, and to his right was the CIC's heart. Three glass doors opened sideways onto a much smaller command center. Inside was a main table shaped like most flat tables on the ship with a light that glowed from within the table itself. The Dradis console and tactical display hung over it. The front held the helms station and fire control while the back held communications, nuclear launch and STG missile control as well as CIBER warfare station.

Shiak walked towards this much smaller command center. He showed the guard on duty his ID and the guard punched in a code. The three doors opened onto the command center. Shiak entered and took his position at the COM station. The electronic swooshing sound of the Dradis and control beeping was all that could be heard. It seemed like a fairly normal day until that first message was received.

Commander Venerus pulled on his uniform and cuffed his sleeves. He then tucked in his shirt and exited his quarters. As he walked officers stood at attention as he passed. He saluted over and over again. To be perfectly honest with himself he enjoyed the respect he was given as the commander of this mighty battlestar.

"Pass the word to Commander Venerus, Lieutenant Reed on Line five, Lieutenant Reed on line five," came Reeds voice over the booming loudspeakers that lined the battlestar's corridors.

Venerus picked up the nearest phone, "Venerus here, what is it Jack?"

Venerus almost always called his command crew by their first names to instill teamwork and trust in the ranks, but he occasionally had to remind them that he was still the CO of the ship.

"Commander," Jack panted, "we have a message that just came in from Colonial command."

"What does it say?"

"Attention all units, Cylon attack underway …." Jack responded.

Venerus's heart skipped a beat.

* * *

><p>BATTLESTAR KUTHIA<p>

_1 hour before attack_

The smell of freshly made coffee poured into Arkanas's nostrils like a wave of good smells. The olfactory nerves could be a detriment on a battlestar most days, especially in the head_(1)_ or even worse the gym. But the smell of coffee made it all worth it. He poured himself a cup and took a sip. He was still in his under uniform. A grey shirt with a well made vest underneath it. It was surprisingly comfortable.

The cup reached his lips and the hot liquid fell into his mouth like a river of eternal youth. He let the first sip simmer in his mouth before swallowing it. He breathed in deeply and closed his eyes as he felt the pulses of energy from the coffee leak into his bloodstream. The energy was magnificent, and after this cup he would be ready for the day.

"If Ambrosia didn't already exist, that's what I'd call coffee," Arkanas said sipping at his coffee again.

The cup clinked onto the table as Arkanas opened his locker and pulled out his uniform. He slung it around himself and straitened it, buttoning it. He pushed his medium long hair out of his face. Arkanas was a tall man, and he usually didn't have trouble with the Ship's doors, however a few of the automatic ones, including the one to his quarters did give him trouble. His face was poorly shaven giving his skin a dirty look, which was the way he liked it. Made him look really tough even though the truth was he was a kind, forgiving soul.

Kiean Arkanas stretched his hands and arms behind his head until his back popped loose. He popped his neck from one side to the other and went towards the door to his quarters. The door slid open and he ducked out. The one annoying thing about his new ship was that his electric automatic door was meant for someone several inches shorter. He looked out into the corridor and walked forward on his way to the CIC.

The lights were now much less abrasive than they used to be, allowing a cool blue color instead of its former white harsh color to fill the hallways. The refit on the Kuthia was well worth it. He smiled, right before he took command it had several problems with its tech. Now Baltar's navigational program had augmented their jump and thruster capabilities phenomenally.

There was some noise behind him as two men in bright orange jump suits bolted past him. Kiean stepped out of the way quickly as they jumped passed without saluting. Chief Shwen would have their asses if he knew they hadn't saluted. Shortly thereafter Shwen himself bolted past with only the briefest salute. That could only mean that something was wrong on the landing deck.

Schwen bolted around the corridor, he felt his stomach sink as he had passed the commander, but he had much more important matters to attend to at the moment. Damn newbie didn't know the first thing about landing a Viper on a deck. What were they teaching these half-witted morons at the academy? Schwen was sure that flight school taught landings as well as take offs, but who knew these days. They might as well let a dickless monkey into the cockpit, they couldn't land any worse.

He jumped in the turbo elevator and punched deck 22. The door remained open for a short while before closing. He tapped his foot slightly as the elevator descended slowly. Sure it was safe in ideal circumstances, but in an emergency it might be faster to send a gods damned snail. The elevator came to a halt and it dinged as it opened. Schwen sighed slowly and bolted out. Obviously the designers of this ship didn't have the word efficiency in mind when they built it.

Schwen reeled around the corner knocking a poor lieutenant of her feet. He pulled her up, apologized quickly and kept watching. He thought for a bit and then decided there really wasn't any way he could blame that collision on the young woman. He kept running. The corridor finally led to the hangar bay where he bolted out jumped over the rail guard, fell ten feet where he collided with the ground. He shook it off and jumped back up again.

"Status!" He barked at his crew.

"One Viper just hit the deck at over 1000 kph," Said a non-commissioned officer, "it skidded for several hundred feet before it collided with the wall, and we also have some damaged deck plates and a lot of bent wall and piping."

One would think of slowing down before colliding with a giant metallic landing deck, but apparently this pilot didn't, "Okay Reeves, Barky, Basil and Fragrance, let get going, get some spare deck plates, pull the piping and get those wall panels off, it needs some replacing, and someone get that fracking moron and his bird off my hangar deck floor!"

He hissed under his breath. Someone crashed one of his birds, damn idiot. He didn't have to repair the damn thing. Schwen grabbed his tool kit and darted for the smoke rising at the far end of the hangar bay. The pilot was lucky that the Kuthia had heavy blast doors over the entrance to the Landing Pod or he would have shot out and died in space.

Killian was standing over a stretcher, "You'll be fine," She said, "The doc will look out for you."

She turned away and put her head in her hands. Schwen walked up to her, with a rather aggravated expression on his face.

"What did that idiot pilot do to my bird?" Schwen growled.

Killian grabbed the chief and slammed him against a viper bay wall and looked him in the eye, "That idiot pilot is one of my idiot pilots so don't frack with him, and two, do your fracking job because that's my viper not yours. You just fix the damn thing."

Schwen broke loose and shook off the adrenalin rush that the attractive young CAG had just given him, "you don't repair them, I do. That makes me the artist and you the appreciator."

"Maybe so," Killian turned to walk away, then looked back over her shoulder "And chief, don't insult one of my pilots again until you actually fly a viper into a landing bay."

Killian Aronai was among the most talented whining machines on the planet and she knew it. She could whine about too much food if she had nothing else, but when it came to her pilots nothing was more important. 150 people aboard the crew of the Kuthia were her responsibility and she would make damn sure they came out of any instance alive, even if she had to go out and grab them herself. Hanur was a decent enough pilot, but he had just screwed up a landing that should have been the simplest op in the book, and to make things even better, the chief had rubbed salt in the wound.

This was not going to be a great day, and even better she now had one of her early morning exercises with the XO of the ship, and he was really fun in the early mornings, the type of fun where you bring a riot shield and hope you survive. Mark was not an early bird, but to his credit he never took it out on the pilots, just her, which she could live with. She walked out of the hall and leaned against the wall putting her head in her hands.

If there were almighty gods up in the heavens, Killian knew they had a really dark sense of humor. One pilot crashes, the briefing with the XO, and to boot the commander came out with her review today and she knew she hadn't done everything he had hoped for. The weight of a screwed up year hung heavily around her neck, the kind that eventually drags even the strongest man underwater. Sucking a deep breath of artificially freshened air, she stood up again and kept walking down the endless maze of corridors that eventually led somewhere inside the Cyrene class battlestar.

After a very long ride to deck 19, which really shouldn't have taken that long, Killian walked into the pilot ready room where the pilots that where up for the first mourning flight routine sat.

"Okay, you guys know the drill, let's see if we can't get the combat drone time down a few more seconds today. I know you guys are up to it," Killian said, "So chop-chop and good hunting. Bring me back some training drones. And please rehearse landing a viper; we don't need to pull another crash landing today."

There was a murmuring of 'yes sir' as the pilots got up and left the room. Killian turned around to see the XO standing in the doorway. His eyes were dark and grey and his hair looked like he had stuck a cubit in an energy socket. He looked just as pleased as ever to have been woken up for this early morning weekly conference.

"Sir," She said snapping to attention.

He waved his hand for her stand at ease and she did. He sat down in one of the pilot's seats and looked up.

"So let's go over this week's schedule," He murmured.

Colonel Kenpachi was among the oldest veterans of the fleet. He had seen the first Cylon war, battled in it and even watched his battlestar, the Colombia, go down. Such memories stick with a man for a long time; especially when so many of your comrades were killed. Mark Kenpachi was impressed with the CAG's performance; however the young woman also was inexperienced. He felt she needed some more time under her belt before she had truly earned the title of CAG.

The colonel's uniform went flat as it could as he straitened it. He pulled his crazy black hair into a tight bun of sorts to fit with regulations, and walked out of the ready room heading for the shipboard café. He was ready for a nice extranet news report. The education rally's on Caprica were causing serious problems, he heard rumors that the president had sent the marines. Good for him, Kenpachi thought Adar was a spineless wimp.

The hallway elevator dinged as he indicated his deck and it began to descend. His eyes stung slightly, they always did in the morning. He rubbed them with his thumb and middle finger. Stretching he prepared to step off the elevator. The doors swung open and he ran into two men punching each other in the hallway. Mark scratched his head for a moment not sure how to handle this. It was a marine and a pilot.

"What the hell is going on here?" Kenpachi barked over the brawling couple.

The two seemed to ignore him as they went about beating the living daylight out of one another. First thing in the morning and he runs into a bar fight in the corridor after a CAG briefing, the XO sighed. He stepped into the fight grabbing the pilot and smashing him into the bulkhead and then put the marine in a neck lock. They seemed to ignore his presence and fought against the invisible restraints until the saw him and fell limp.

"Now, would somewhat like to tell me what is going on," He said looking at each other.

There was a slightly awkward silence before the soldier broke it, "The Caprica Buccaneers are better than the panthers, and he knows it but he's standing up for them."

"So this fight is over the Pyramid ball game on Geminon?" Kenpachi let go of the two as they looked like innocent puppies that had gotten into the cookie jar.

They both nodded. A man came around the corner, his goatee and large face gleaming with anger, when he saw Mark his composure stiffened. Captain Chad Rios had just arrived; obviously someone had called this fight in. Mark turned back to the two brawlers.

"The fact is we both know that it's the fluffy tigers that are the best at Pyramid, right?" Kenpachi said smiling, "This won't go on any reports but I don't want to see it again."

The two nodded and saluted as stiffly and properly as they could. Kenpachi gestured for them to get out of there, and they did, he turned to Chad.

"Close one," The XO said.

Chad felt his heart lighten slightly, "An excess of testosterone sir," Chad said.

The XO smiled, "Yeah, I'm needed in the CIC. Good day Captain."

Chad saluted and then turned the other way, and walked down the Kuthia's hallway on his way to the mess hall which had been his destination before his young marines had gotten in a fight over the Buccaneers. That was dedication, to fight over a pyramid ball game. Chad had played pyramid in his college days; he wasn't bad at it either.

Chad was well built for a blocker in Pyramid; he was quick and fast, muscular but not huge. He entered the mess hall and saw the assortment of foods lined up. He went for the giant sizzling stake, even though it reminded him more of rubber than meat. He grabbed some asparagus and some bread and sat down, and began to eat it.

A young man walked across the room and sat alone in a corner. Chad sighed, another young man fresh out of War College. Chad stood up slowly, his height was impressive, but his clean-shaven face showed off more than a few battle scars from several pirate raids he had gone on as a private in the colonial military. His eyes were a dark brown and had a unique ability to overpower anyone else who might be trying to annoy him.

He moved over to the young man and sat down putting the rubbery meat into his mouth and chewing, sometimes a very strange sensation. He looked up to see the young man starring at him. His smooth face was twisted into a very awkward expression. It was obvious this young man hadn't seen any combat in his life at all. Being trained and living with battle were very different things.

"They never get the meat right," Chad said, "I think they might have painted some rubber stores."

The young man remained silent, he was obviously scared. Chad supposed he couldn't blame the poor kid. One of Chad's traits was looking rather intimidating even if he didn't mean to. It had always served him well in fights and combat situations.

"The names Chad, Chad Rios," Chad cut into the silence again.

"Vashtin Kylos," Said the young man again, "I handle communications in the CIC."

"A bit of friendly advice kid," Rios said looking him in the eye, "There is more to living on a battlestar than simply being good at what you do. You've gotta learn how to make friends here or you'll go stir crazy in two months."

"I don't make friends very easily," he straightened up and tried to appear more confident than he was, "and I'm not looking for friends."

"Too bad for you kid, you just made one," Chad said smiling.

Vashtin Kylos was almost always alone in life; he had been since he couldn't hold his own ground on the playground in grade school. Everyone seemed to hate him, but here he was on a Battlestar. He was persistent, and even when things looked dark as hell he kept going and pushing forward. Kylos was actually very good looking, or so he thought. His hair was a soft black, and his face was clean-shaven and his eyes where blue and that was always a good thing. Both way though, he wore glasses and that made him look like a computer geek, which he guessed wasn't far from the truth. He was no tech genius like Sylla, who he could never stop thinking about.

Sylla was among the few things that got under Vashtin's skin. She was beautiful and attractive, and … and … and everything he thought he wanted in a girl. His father had always told him that what he thought he wanted and what he needed were often nowhere near each other. He needed to get to the CIC anyway and that was of great importance to him as well. All his life he dreamed of serving aboard a battle star, and today he was serving aboard one.

He walked into the head outside the CIC and washed his hands and flushed his face with some cold water. It felt really good in the early morning right before duty began. His eyes darted to the side as Sylla walked in, her blond hair flowing backwards. She unbuttoned her uniform and pulled off her clothes and hung them on the rack. Kylos was awe stricken as his eyes moved up and down her body. Her bra was basically all that stood between him and ….

"Quit staring," Said a voice next to him, "It's rude."

He and a line of people at the sinks snickered at him. He glared down at his bowl, his face was probably glowing it was so red at this point. It never mattered how far you went into the world, some people were always there to tease you. He had learned long ago how not to cry, but still he was hurt every time someone took a pot shot at him.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw Sylla slip into the shower, and he sighed. That would be one thing he never got to see upfront. Shaking his head, Kylos left the room.

Sylla let the warm water flow over her body. The steam wrapped around her like a blanket. She pulled the pencil in her hair and her long silk like blond hair fell about her back. The water soaked through it washing out the sticky feeling she had gotten over the course of her last shift. She had half an hour before she began her primary shift. Getting drawn for the 12-6 shift in addition to one's own daily shift sucked.

She let the warm water run for as long as she could before turning it off and stepping out into the head. She pulled on her under clothing. She never stopped getting looks from men when she did this. Not always their wisest move, since she was also a hand-to-hand specialist.

"Hey babe," Came a crewman's voice.

She darted a glare that made him back up and slowly enter his shower stall. She grabbed her uniform and put it on and buttoned it. Pulling it tight she wrapped the belt and side arm around the middle and pulled some strings out. She looked at herself in the mirror, her hair dangled down about her shoulders, but her golden eyes and fair features were otherwise just fine.

She pulled her hair back into a bun and stuck the pencil in it again to keep it there. Shaking her head to test the hairs stability caused some hair to fall out; she flushed them with some water and thrust them back into the bun. She opened the door to the head and exited.

It wasn't far to the CIC, and as she entered the beeping of consoles and the swooshing of the Dradis filled the room, along with muffled voices of people discussing work. The CIC was comprised of a full circle of officers surrounding the central combat table, which had the Dradis, combat and tactical displays above it. Sylla's position was in the circle outside it. However, there were seven more circles of stations outside of that one, giving the CIC an almost theater like feel to it. Descending the stairs she slipped into her stations relieving the officer that had taken charge.

Kiean Arkanas entered the CIC and walked right out into the flat stage are where the primary combat table sat. On the opposite side stood Kenpachi. They looked at each other and then up at the Dradis console. It swooshed back and forth revealing several colonial vessels, and the position of a nearby dock, other than that it was completely blank.

"Anything interesting over Caprica?" Asked Arkanas.

"Nothing of note," Kenpachi responded.

Suddenly there was a beeping sound and Kiean's head shot upwards to the Dradis console where four red contacts appeared, then ten, and then almost fifty contacts had appeared.

"Combat stations," Arkanas barked, "prepare STS missile barrage."

The alarm blared throughout the ship.

* * *

><p>AN

And there you have it! Please tell us what you think of the story, once again a story I have posted is being written by two people, why you ask? Well to put it simply, if it was just me writing there would never even be a story, I am just that damn lazy. So if like this story than thank my friend because he is the driving force behing it. But I digress i'm ranting again, so i'll shut up now and get out of your hair.


	2. A Dark Day

Disclaimer: We do not own Battlestar or any of it's subdivisions within the franchise. As such no profit or copyright infringement is intended in the creation of this story. It is meant purely for entertainment.

That being said I give you Battlestar: Horizons

* * *

><p>A Dark Day<p>

BATTLESTAR REVELATION

Amanda felt the cold clunking of her Viper sliding into its launch tube. She looked over at her flight operator. He gave her the thumbs up to tell her that everything was green. She sighed, her heart pounded, it had been a few hours since her last training session, but she had never actually trained with live rounds flying at her. She felt sweat bead up on her for head, but she couldn't reach it due to her helmet. Decreasing her breath rate helped a great deal, allowing her anxiety to dissipate before launch.

"What are they gonna a look like," Asked Hotrod from the viper adjacent to hers, "No one ahs seen these jerk offs in forty years?"

"Your death flying at you at high speeds Hot rod, unless you shoot them first," Amanda responded.

There was a wave of laughter, "We'll kick 'em out in time for a mid night Frack with the fan girls," Hotrod said increasing the spirit of the pilots even further.

The sudden jolt of a jump hit them as the Revelation jumped into the combat zone. It was only seconds before Amanda could here the thundering roars of missils impacting the great Battlestars hull. She clenched her fists around her joy stick, and prepared for launch.

"Keep the chatter down boys," She said, "and I'll lay the first one of you guys to get a kill."

There was a 'oooh' from the other pilots, "Really?" Came another pilot's voice.

"I guess you'll have to get the first kill to find out," Amanda said back, smiling.

"All vipers, this is the XO," Lillians voice entered over the speakers, "You are go for launch, I repeat go for launch."

Amanda exhaled as she had done many times before, and then she was thrust against her seat as the Viper accelerated towards the opening the Revelation's outer hull. Then it happened the grey tube vanished and the pinpricks of white light appeared, space had sprung in front of them. All of a sudden the greatness, and emptiness of space closed in around her. Flashes of light appeared over Toran, a great world now covered with the clods rising from nuclear detonations.

She turned her viper and saw it, a Cylon Raider, thin and sharp with the menacing head of an angry beast. She throttled up and then it happened, her entire viper shut down. Everyone's viper shut down, and they were a drift. The Raider came strait at them at high speeds.

"FRACK THIS!" Amanda said.

She reached down to her waist and pulled her side arm out. She fired once and blasted the cockpit's windshield into shattered projectiles as she unbuckled and pushed off, she pointed her gun at the incoming raider. This was the point where she knew she was out of her mind. She saw a red eye in the center of the Raider and assumed that was the cockpit. She pointed and fired. The recoil acted as a thruster in and of itself propelling her backwards, the bullet was also launched forwards towards the red eye. She had timed the intercept perfectly, and the raider jolted and then started drifting out of control.

"I just shot down a raider with a pistol," She muttered to herself in amazement.

She then saw the majestic Battlestar of which she was still assigned to entering a shooting contest with a large star shaped vessel, a Base Star of some kind. The great guns on her hull blazed wildly in turn pounding the shinning grey hull of the Cylon vessel. The she looked around her, the Battlestars where drifting uncontrollably, most not even damaged.

Had they killed entire battlestars the way they killed her air group? If that was the case how was the Revelation still in combat? The Revelation took several hits to her port side while she pummeled her starboard opponent into a retreat, and then her guns came around and began shooting the port side Base Star.

"Commander, radiological alarm!" Shiak screamed at the top of his lungs.

"They've got fracking nukes!" Venerus muttered under his breath.

The medium height, dirty blond commander looked up at the Dradis console. He glowered out the tactical situation. It was not good, and that was putting it lightly. How could they have brought over thirty battlestars to their knees so quickly? The sound of missile impacts resounded through the great hollow interior of the mighty battlestar. Meanwhile, Venerus watched as two dots raced towards the center of the Dradis screen.

"Brace for contact," Venerus said looking up at Lillian.

"No kidding," Lillian replied.

The ship jolted forward and the lights flickered. Two of the three glass doors separating the Command section of the CIC to her control compartments shattered. Venerus felt his body impact the Command table before he knew he was being thrown. His head made contact, vision blurring for a moment, he lay still until his body recovered. He pushed himself to his feet and looked at the Dradis console; it was blurred and fizzing in and out of perception. Lillian rose from behind the table, her face covered in shadow, occasionally lit up by the flickering lights.

"Looks like Radiation levels are holding within norms," Lillian said.

The ship resumed echoing the impacts of explosive ordinance on the outer hull. The lights slowly came back on, and the muffled sound of the Revelations own guns resumed. Venerus looked up at the Dradis again, watching the battle progress. Already five of the thirty battlestars had vanished off Dradis.

"This is not good, how are our pilots," Venerus asked, "I haven't heard a word from them."

"Nor have I," Shiak replied, "They went dead only moments after they launched."

"They go dead and nobody tells me?" Venerus said whirling around, "Obviously this crew needs to work on its communication."

"Sorry sir, I wasn't thinking," Shiak said hanging his head.

"Your damn right you weren't," Lillian said walking over to him, "Find them, NOW! Their lives depend on it."

Shiak nodded and started fiddling around with the console trying to establish some kind of link with the Air Group. Venerus sighed, he knew this fight was doomed, but he would damn well give the Cylons a fight they wouldn't soon forget. He looked at Lillian and then at the Helmsmen.

"Helm, take us directly towards that Base Star baring 406 karam 473," Venerus watched the Helmsmen nod in obedience, "Weapons, bring all our Dorsal and Ventral guns to bare on the port side Base Star. Target our main battery on the Base Star we are headed towards."

"Yes sir," Replied the gunman.

"And may the Gods have mercy on our souls."

* * *

><p>BATTLESTAR KUTHIA<p>

The lights were out, sparks exploded from an occasional console as the ship continued taking hits. Sylla fiddled with her console, but nothing worked. She couldn't understand it, how had this battlestar just shut down?

"Get me some power," Arkanas bellowed from the Command table.

"Working on it," Sylla said brushing away some hair that had fallen across her face.

She thought for a moment, how would someone shut down a battlestar like that? If it had been her, she would have used the computer link onboard. She looked around for the wire frame that linked her console to the rest of the ship. She pulled the wire and her console flickered to life. It was much slower now that it no longer could link with the mainframe of the ships CIBER division.

The ship took a heavy hit as the entire CIC jerked forward sending several people catapulting from their stations. Several of them landed only a few feet away, others managed to slam into hard metal walls. She winced as she heard the yell and then thudding silence. Her computer came on line completely. Opening up a wireless connection she created a makeshift firewall to repel any virus the Cylons might have infected the ship with.

"My Power Sylla!" Arkanas yelled.

"It isn't that simple, I don't even know why it's out yet!" Sylla shot back, "Just because you order it doesn't make it possible."

"When this is over we are going to have a chat about your tongue Lieutenant," Arkanas snapped.

Sylla hissed in anger. The commander was putting pressure on her she didn't need. Another impact thundered on the hull rocking the ship, sparks fell from the ceiling. She put her hands on the keyboard and started accessing the mainframe. She ran into roadblock after roadblock having to bypass securities that popped up out of nowhere to try and stop her. A few minutes later she had gotten through.

She searched the mainframe systems until navigation caught her eye. The entire system was relaying a signal to the rest of the ship. But what could it possibly be relaying? She selected it and shut the navigation system down, almost instantly the Battlestars lights flickered on. She looked up and sighed. The relief was momentary as the Battlestar's schematics flickered onto her board, and she saw hundreds of red dots covering the vessel.

"Commander main systems are damaged, our power lines have been fused in several places and fires are burning on several decks, nothing critical," Said Sylla.

The ship shook again as it was impacted.

"We can't take much more of this," Sylla said.

Kenpachi looked down from his Dradis console, "She's right, we are out gunned and out matched."

"We aren't leaving," Arkanas said.

"We may not have a choice, we will do no good to our colonies dead, commander," The XO reasoned.

Arkanas sighed, "Prepare to jump the ship."

"Commander, the navigation is down. I can't calculate a jump," Sylla could tell the bad news did not go over well.

Arkanas grimaced, "Is there no way to calculate a jump?" Sylla shook her head. "Then we will have to jump blind."

The entire CIC went silent as they looked at Arkanas. The ship took another hit as the sparks fell from the Dradis console. Sylla's stationed sparked as well, it was working far too hard to keep the Navigation system down for long.

"No sane man would make that call, Commander," Kenpachi said.

"Then I'm not a sane man," Arkanas retorted, "Jump us, NOW!"

Sylla nodded to acknowledge the command. She spooled up the Jump Drives, and then retracted the key from her lock box and placed it into the jump computer. Moments later the Jump drive hummed to life as it charged. She watched the clock begin to tick. Another missile impacted the hull and sparks exploded from her console, this time burning her hand. She gasped slightly as she instinctively grasped her wounded appendage.

"Jump in five seconds," Sylla informed the crew.

The ship jerked as the jump initiated and the jolted in the opposite direction as it was completed. Several lamps exploded and fell to the floor, two more consoles exploded with sparks as well, and then her console began to spark. Sylla backed away from it as fast as she could, but it wasn't fast enough. The console exploded into a furious fire and sent shrapnel flying. The concussive wave threw Sylla against the opposing consoles sharp edge, where the ground met her body with incredible force before she even knew what happened.

Her senses came back slowly; her eyes were blurred but the flickering lights of the CIC came in and out of focus. She tried to sit up, but her effort was met with a jolt of pain. She gasped slightly as her vision vanished again for a moment. When it returned she saw Arkanas and Kenpachi kneeling over her. They were speaking, or maybe yelling. She couldn't tell, everything seemed so far away including sound. She looked down, or was it up? She didn't care anymore, and saw her stomach; a piece of shrapnel had been imbedded in her. It looked rather strange to see an object protruding from her own gut.

Her vision began to dim slightly, and her eyes began to hurt. She needed rest, that was it rest. If she could just close her eyes for a moment. FIRE! There was a fire, her heart pumped for a few seconds as she saw her console engulfed in flame. Plastic panels melting off and dripping down the sides of the console like cheese on a frying pan. Her heart calmed down for a moment and then the world went black.

Arkanas pushed as hard as he dared on the young blond girls wound. The blood still oozed from between his fingers. Kenpachi grabbed the fire extinguisher from the Command Table and began to battle the roaring fire that had begun in the CIC. Arkanas battled the blood spilling from his tech officers stomach. She was still breathing.

"Stay awake, Lieutenant, that's a Gods damn order," He screamed, "Where are the fracking medics!"

Kenpachi kept spewing foam into the fire; Arkanas kept attempting to stop the flow of blood and many other people raced around the room to help one or the other. The rattling of a medical cot being pushed at rapid velocities down the metallic corridor outside the CIC met his ears. Arkanas had never been so relieved to hear the noise of clattering medics. The scarlet blood still ran between his fingers, hot and warm, a friendly reminder that she was still alive, but for how long depended on the medics.

Glancing to the side he saw Kenpachi spray the last of his foam on a very small fire. What was left of the burning flame was put out as Kenpachi beat it out with his hand. Arkanas turned the other direction in time to see a giant metal cross bar of a stretcher come up to them.

"What happened?" The medic asked bending over her with a Stethoscope.

"Her console blew up" Arkanas stated simply.

"This is a code blue, let's get her to the infirmary before it really does become a code blue, on three," The medic said.

On the count of three they lifted her evenly from the floor onto the stretcher and pushed her off at high speeds again. Arkanas stood up looking after her. Suddenly his hands began to crack and drip with globules of thick liquid. He looked down to see his red hands. Blood dripped and fell off as the blood began to coagulate.

"What's our situation?" Arkanas said turning back to the command table.

"Not good," Kenpachi said, "Our weapons are off line, our vipers never made it out of the launch bays, and now the pilots are trapped in there, and if that wasn't enough good news, our navigational computer is fried. We have no way of knowing where we are."

"Well we are still alive, so not a sun, asteroid field or planet," Said Arkanas, "What else?"

"Casualty reports are still coming in, but as of now, the count is 720, souls," Kenpachi said.

Arkanas felt his heart rocket to the floor, "720 dead of 1890, over one-third of my crew is dead?"

Kenpachi nodded grimly, Arkanas put his hands on the Command table, wetting it with blood. Seven hundred and twenty, perhaps more, of his crew was dead, his battlestar was in no condition to defend itself and his surviving crew already battle weary. They had to get this ship back on its feet as soon as they possibly could.

The ship hummed slightly as Arkanas stared at the glowing surface of the command table. His mind raced through their situation trying to find a loophole or a way out. His thoughts were mingled with spikes and shots of fear and pain over the loss of so many good men and women under his command, in addition to his own minor scrapes and bruises.

"We need to get the Kuthia back on her feet," Arkanas finally said.

Kenpachi nodded, "I suggest we start by bringing the essential systems online, including the main weapon systems."

"Make it happen," Arkanas said.

Kenpachi acknowledged the order and began shouting orders through the phone. A few moments later he slammed the phone on the table. Looking up he smiled slightly.

"It's happening," Kenpachi said.

Arkanas looked glanced at the Dradis console; it still came across as empty, "What's happening?" Arkanas said, "What is going on? How has it come to this? Why should it be us who lives to see the end of everything we have ever known?"

"Like a thousand others who came before me," Kenpachi began, "I must say this: we don't get the chance to choose, we don't get to pick the age in which we were born. I guess it's our job to do what we can to turn this age around."

Arkanas smiled. Kenpachi always had a wise word or two to say, but they only made sense if one thought about them incredibly hard or incredibly little. Arkanas finally pushed himself off the command table, where his hand marks had been imprinted in blood. He shook his head slightly as he unbuttoned the top of his uniform.

"I'm going to wash up," Arkanas said, "Notify me of any change in status."

"Yes sir," Kenpachi said saluting.

Arkanas walked out of the CIC and down the hall. A few moments passed before he reached the elevator. The flickering lights didn't give Arkanas much faith in its ability to carry him to his desired deck. He stepped in nonetheless. Moments later he was heading for his quarters. The Colonial fleet was in ruins, and for all he knew; the Kuthia was the last surviving battlestar in the fleet.

Schwen looked up as he grabbed onto the manual release for the Viper bay doors. Twirling it he finally heard the mechanism within the door click apart and the magnetic constrictors pry apart. Three of the deckhands formed up on Schwen as they tugged the door. The door creaked and groaned in defiance, but eventually gave in as it slid open. Schwen looked up and rubbed his brow.

"Okay people, we know what to do, get these pilots out of their tubes, let's move!" Schwen yelled.

The entire deck gang began to shift around the deck. Knowing that on the opposite side of the ship people were doing the same thing he and his team were. The onboard crane hummed as it pulled the viper out of the tube with no assistance from the Viper locks. The viper hovered for a second before its massive frame broke the crane's cable. The Viper fell to the floor.

Moments later Killian was helped from the cockpit. She did not look pleased. Her brow was furled and her hair was a mess. After falling from the Viper edge to the floor she walked up to Schwen.

"Well I'll be, you leave me in the tube for an hour and then drop me on my ass as soon as you're done huh?" Killian accused.

"Whoa, calm down now," Said Schwen, "I got you out of there, and now we are working on your other pilots."

She hissed and walked away angrily. Schwen shook his head; those pilots were filled with arrogant self-importance that needed to be straightened out. The tall deck chief walked up to the viper and examined it. It was undamaged from the fall. It was designed for impacts of much greater kinetic energy. He rubbed his hand across the Vipers hull, it seemed as if it was in good enough shape.

Looking around Schwen saw the Vipers being pulled out of the tubes manually and placed on the deck at odd angles. A few moments later one of his deck gang came up to him.

"We have almost retracted all the vipers, what's the next step?" He asked.

"Find out what the hell happened them, and their launch tubes." Schwen said walking towards the exit.

He full well intended to have a talk with the commander, and find out what happened.

Killian made it to the pilot's locker room where she leaned against the wall. Several of her pilots came in undressing and hanging up their flight gear, chattering about what had just happened. Killian had no idea what went on out there but she could hazard a guess. They were in battle over Caprica right before the Kuthia had jumped away.

"We lost, we fracking lost," said one of the Pilots.

"Cut it," Killian said standing, "We have no idea what has just happened and until we do we will continue with this day as if it were any other."

"Captain," Said a pilot, "We don't get hammered every day."

"Your damn right we don't," Killian said, "So that means we have to keep our cool. I know all of you are scared right now, and don't deny it! I'm terrified, and I know it's hard for us to accept that it may be a while before we get home again if we get home at all. But each and every one of us has trained for combat, if this is a full scale war then we will be doing what we are trained to do."

The silence continued for several moments after the speech was done. They all looked at her with stunned expressions crossing their faces, like a heard of wild cattle watching the barn burn to the ground.

"Sometimes life throws us curve balls, we can't choose what life gives us, but I know you all, and I know you can handle it."

The crowd nodded as they went about their business in complete silence. Killian turned to her jump suit, taking off the thin but sturdy fabric and placing her helmet in her locker safely. Removing a jumpsuit was harder than it looked. After she finally detached it from her shoes she exited the locker in her under uniform. Moments later she was in an elevator heading for the CIC.

After exiting the incredibly slow lift she ran into the combat guards. She showed them her ID, and they pushed open the CIC door. Smoke rose from a console, and the commander was absent. At the command table checking up on the situation stood Kenpachi and Vashtin, looking very pale. The poor kid looked like he had walked through hell and back again. She approached the command deck.

"Captain Killian Aronai," Said Killian snapping into a salute.

"Captain, as you were, and hold this," Kenpachi said handing her a sparking wire.

Killian did as she was requested to, "Colonel may I speak with you?"

"Go ahead captain, but make it quick, we are very busy," Kenpachi reported.

"Colonel, forgive me for being blunt but what the hell just happened?" She asked.

Kenpachi paused for a moment, "The colonies have been attacked, and just before we left Caprica had been nuked over a dozen times, whatever the situation is I guarantee you it sucks."

"Where did the Cylons come from?" Killian prodded, "It is the Cylons right?"

"Zeus only knows, and if I die out here, I swear I'm gonna kill him. The short answer is we believe so, Captain we want this kept confidential for the moment," The colonel looked her in the eye as he said this, then returned to making repairs to the Dradis console, taking the sparking wire from Killian.

"Of course, sir," Killian said, "You look horrified Vashtin what's wrong?"

"Sylla is in the infirmary," Kenpachi answered for the young man, "Our young petty officer seems to be having issues with that."

Killian nodded in understanding, "Colonel I will take Vashtin's post, I need to be useful anyway, and I won't be flying for a while."

"I accept because I need a cool head in here, Vashtin you stand relieved," Said Kenpachi.

Without as much as a word the young petty officer bolted for the door. Killian turned towards Kenpachi again and was handed a welder and a metallic wire casing. Kenpachi pointed at the Dradis console, which seemed to be having spasm attacks. Moments later she was kneeling on the command table putting the Dradis console back together.

ABOVE TAURON

Amanda floated through space. The battle had been going on for hours now, or was it days? Gods it felt like days. The flashing of explosions punctuated the mix of Cylon basestars and Colonial fleet vessels. The great planet bellow her was on fire with red flame as nuclear hell began to poor down upon its surface. Looking at her O2 gauge she saw she had just entered the red. It seemed to hit her now, the time she had spent training was all for nothing, she was going to die out here.

She glanced over in the distance and saw the majestic shape of the Orion class dreadnought, the Revelation. It was being pummeled with fire from at least four base stars. It was hard to tell from this distance. She seemed to be focusing all her firepower on one. It wasn't running, and the exchange of fire between them increased until it the base star was covered in explosions. Finally the Cylon vessel exploded.

The Cylons were closing on the great ship now. Suddenly its guns stopped firing, and they retracted. What was Venerus doing? Suddenly a flash of bright light sprung along the length of the ship and the great battlestar disappeared in a blast of energy. The sheer physical force of the jump ripped several more Base stars to pieces. Amanda smiled; at least the bastards got what was coming to them. She glanced at her O2 gage again and saw she was burning through what little oxygen she had left. She let herself fall limp, there was little use now, it was over.

BATTLESTAR REVELATION

Venerus slammed his metal door leading to his cabin. He collapsed onto his couch and let his head fall into his hands. Tears dripped down his face, he had just left over 1000 of his pilots to die. The tears streamed from his eyes and fell into his hands and then fell to the floor like a spring rain hitting the newly sprouted leaves of perennial trees. His mind wandered to Geminon and the treasure he had left behind there. There was a knock on his door.

"Come in," Venerus said.

Lillian entered the room and saluted.

"As you were colonel," Venerus said wiping his eyes as inconspicuously as possible.

"You made the right call, commander," Lillian said.

"I need help colonel, making a decision that I am not qualified to make," Said Venerus, "What do we do from here?"

Lillian sat down and looked across the room at Venerus, "In my experience the heart of human being is guide enough."

"If it was up to me, Lillian, I would never leave. I would fight these bastards until one of us lay dead," Venerus said.

"Our only other option is to run and hide," Lillian said.

"I should run, but I can't," Venerus said.

Lillian's inquisitive look said enough, "I have a daughter on her way to Caprica from Geminon," Venerus continued, "Her names Kalin. She and her grandmother were heading to Caprica to visit her mother and her boyfriend."

"I had no idea you had been married, sir," Lillian said.

"I never was," Venerus smiled, "Kalin was born out of wedlock, and her mother didn't want a Colonial officer for her daughter's father."

Lillian smiled slightly, "None of us are qualified Commander, I have a brother on Virgon, and a boyfriend on Caprica. There's not a signal one of us who doesn't have a personal stake in this."

The phone buzzed. They looked at it as it buzzed again. Venerus pushed himself to his feet and picked it up.

"Captain," Came Shiak's voice, "We just received word from the fleet. The Battlestar Atlantia has been destroyed. Admiral Nagala is dead."

Venerus held still for a moment and then hung up the phone and leaned on his desk. The world seemed to slow down. The High Admiral was dead. The world around him seemed to spin for a moment. The war was now over.

"Colonel, prep the ship for a search and rescue op to Tauron fleet yards," Venerus said.

"Commander?" Lillian inquired, "We just left"

"We left over a thousand men and woman behind, not to mention any survivors elsewhere. We are going back to get them," Venerus said, "And then we are going to take this war to the Cylons."

* * *

><p>AN

There you have the first of the actual chapters of Battlestar: Horizons, hope you all enjoyed it. This story will proceed in a somewhat episodic structure, or at least that is the current plan, so there may be a time skip from time to time.


	3. Dawning Light

Disclaimer: We do not own Battlestar Galactica, we do not intend to make any profit from this story whatsoever and as such we also do not mean any copyright infringement of any sort by writing this fanfiction. Therefore we would appreciate it if no lawsuit or harsh warning were delivered to us.

* * *

><p>Dawning Light<p>

Her heart pumped, and her lungs sucked in air, this was all that reminded her she was alive. Amanda floated, helplessly through the vacuum of space. How many hours had it been since the Revelation jumped away? Couldn't have been long, she was still alive. She glanced down at her O2 gauge. It was just about empty. She let out a long breath of air, and closed her eyes. She knew it wouldn't be long now. As a little girl Amanda had always feared of dying in an enclosed space. But here she was in the widest place the galaxy had to offer, and yet she felt trapped.

_PICON – 12 YEARS PRIOR_

_The wind blew across her face numbing her cheeks and her nose. The great Oceans of her home rose up in angry defiance of the rocky shore that stood in its way. Again and again the mighty waves crashed against the great rocks, as if they were trying to bring down the continent. Ice was smashed over the lip of the cliff as the water brought it in from way out over the horizon. Amanda admired the waves; they never gave up no matter how much resistance they met. Though her lips hurt and her cheeks stung, she smiled, Poseidon was the greatest God of all._

_Two lovers, ran across the cliffs edge smiling and laughing with one another, they embraced each other as a great wave crashed into the cliff spraying huge quantities of water into the air over them as if to join in their love. The smile on her face began to fade as she saw a ship riding the waves. The large metal monstrosity was being carried towards the cliff wall, with no way of stopping. The lighthouse not far from where she stood did little to aid the ship or her crew, besides telling them how close they where to their final doom._

_The two lovers on the edge noticed the ship heading for the rocks and began waving their hands and shouting in audible words, even if the ship could hear them, there was no stopping. The sound of bells began to reach the shore as the ship continued to approach, carried by the waves. Her father served at sea for longer than she had been alive, his ships name was the Aquamore, a cargo carrier like this one, carrying goods to the spaceport. Why these sailors kept putting themselves on the angry ocean when they could fly bemused her._

_The ship dipped out of sight and never came up again, the two lovers went silent, and Amanda felt her heart skip a beat. The ship had crashed into the reef or worse. Her eyes blinked tears out as she held her hand up in the traditional seamen's farewell she had seen her father use many times. The storm finally began to drop rain on them, and as it did the wind began to die down._

"_Amanda?" Came the shrill voice of her mother, "Amanda! get inside now. It's too dangerous in a storm like this."_

_The woman came out to grab her daughter but stopped when she saw he daughter's eyes fixed on the ocean._

"_What happened?"_

"_A ship mother," Amanda replied, "It crashed onto the reef."_

_Seeing the two lovers standing on the edge of the cliff looking out over the ocean convinced her that her daughter was telling the truth. Her hands slipped over her daughters as they stood in the rain together looking at the ocean, which had claimed so many lives over the past 3000 years. Poseidon had claimed yet another great ship._

"_Come on inside sweet heart," Said Amanda's mother, "We will take the boat out to help as soon as the storm clears."_

OVER TAURON – PRESENT DAY

Amanda sucked in as much air as she dared now, knowing how precious little there was left. A tear dropped from her eye. How little that little girl had known. If she had known that her life would end above the skies of a world dozens of light years away she may have never joined the Colonial fleet. Maybe she would have followed her father, and become a sailor as he had been.

The 02 Gauge was as low as it had ever been. The lack of air was now getting to her. She let out a breath and drew in another. How few of those wonderful conglomerations of air were left. A body floated by her she grabbed it and looked. The face was dark as night, a crack in the helmets glass emanated from a hole, obviously due to a bullet, she let go of the body and it floated away. Shortly thereafter the empty burned hull of a Viper floated past her.

_PICON – 12 YEARS EARLIER_

_Bits of debris bobbed up and down in the water. Amanda's mother sat at the wheel of their small boat as they headed towards the empty shell of a giant super tanker that had been filled with tyllium at some point in time. If anyone had survived they would be in bad shape. The bow had been ripped and twisted to pieces and a massive whole offered a view into the great interior of the ship. Fire scars surrounded it as if it had been an explosion of some kind._

_A body bobbed in the water, it had been dead for some time. The lips of the young man had turned bluish-purple and his face was completely white. Amanda's mother put a hand on her shoulder._

"_Don't look dear, you don't have to look," She said._

_It was expected of a Picon citizen to help injured sailors, their patron God was Poseidon. Amanda looked away and what met her eyes was even more heart wrenching. The massive hull now loomed above them, and in large lettering was written the words Aquamore. Her father's ship lay in ruins before her. She dived into the water before her mother could stop her. Swimming to the metal hull she felt the water currents pulling her under but managed to grab onto a sharp piece of metal. Blood oozed from her hands as she pulled herself up onto the latter not far from the rip in the hull._

_Once at the top of the deck she looked around expecting to see her father running out to greet her. Or at the least to see him sitting on the deck, maybe a little damp from the storm but alive, but the deck was silent. There weren't even any bodies, no sign that the ship had even been crewed except for the one man they had seen on their way over. She collapsed onto her knees and cried, she was angry and sad, the most powerful thing in her life was just gone, swept away by the mighty ocean that only a few hours ago she had been in awe and reverence of._

_A gentle hand touched her shoulder and her mother's voice came to her in sobs of her own. They hugged each other and upon the deck of the Aquamore they cried. Mother and Daughter in each other's arms wept over their loss together._

BATTLESTAR REVELATION – PRESENT DAY

Lillian stood over the combat table in the war room aboard the Revelation. The hum of the engines, the sounds of the great Jump drives throbbing with in the heart of the ship and the buzz of the fluorescent lights all were the same but the world was so very different now. Lillian stood with several other officers trying to plan a rescue for their pilots in the hour they had left.

She put down the piece of paper she was holding and leaned against the table propping herself up with her two hands. The paper was a gridded map of the star system surrounding the Cylons. They had to find a way to get the pilots aboard who may still be alive, without risking their lives. If the Cylons had left Tauron it would make life a great deal easier.

"We counted thirty three nuclear detonations while we were in orbit," Said one of the lieutenants.

"Yes I know," Lillian said, "it is entirely possible they could have upped and left the vicinity. They certainly did enough damage."

Venerus shut the door behind him startling everybody. Lillian jolted up from her position and saw him. She snapped to attention.

"It won't be long before we are going, is there a plan or should we just scoop up our pilots with the flight pods?"

"Nothing solid yet, sir, some recon would be nice," Lillian replied.

"Well its the needing the pilots to go get the pilots paradox, live with it," Venerus snapped, "a thousand of our people are out there. We are going to get as many back as possible, all their O2 is nearly out so we launch this mission in a couple hours or we don't launch it at all."

BATTLESTAR KUTHIA

Schwen pushed as hard as he could, the large metal beam digging into his shoulder. Grease dripped down his face and he was rank with the smell of refined Tyllium. Two of his deckhands, armed with arc welders began to weld the massive beam together. With so many of the ships damage control teams either deployed, injured or dead, the deckhands had been called upon to assist in what has become essentially rebuilding the Battlestar from the inside out.

Schwen growled under his breath. The only people good at their jobs anymore was the deckhands. The damage control teams should be able to handle damage, right? But no, when there was too much damage they called on the deckhands and now he had to force his hard working men to pull double shifts. That just made him plain mad.

"I think it'll hold," Said the young deckhand.

"You think?" Schwen scolded, "If it doesn't hold there's gonna be a roughly two hundred pound bludgeon of sorts ready to fall on someone's head."

The deckhand looked down and saw the hallway floor below him, "I just don't know how much beating it'll take."

"Do we have those support rods I asked for?" Schwen asked.

The clanking indicated that they did. An officer assigned to assist them helped drag them down the hall.

"Time to get your hands dirty LT" Schwen said pointing at the beam.

To Schwens surprise, the lieutenant pulled off his uniform and picked up an idle torch and a rod.

'Where do you want it, chief?" asked the officer.

Schwen took a moment to answer before he pointed to the rod and the wall, "See if you can't wedge it against the wall, make it nice and tight. It'll add some structural support. Andy, Reeve help at this end, we need to get this beam in place. This ain't gonna look pretty but it'll do its job."

The sparks began flying again as the four of them now tried stabilizing the corridor. This was gonna be a long day.

Arkanas walked down the hallway and turned into the medical bay. Every bed was full, moans and cries of pain filled the air, and the stench of charred flesh reached his nostrils. A nurse walked up to him and then recognized him, she saluted.

"Can I help you, sir?" She asked.

"My tech officer, Sylla," Arkanas said, "Is she going to make it?"

"She's in emergency surgery right now, with Doc Mallard," said the nurse, "She's gone in twice now, but I think it's just to touch up on some internal bleeding this time around."

"So is that a yes, or a no?" Arkanas rephrased.

"Sir I have over four hundred patients to attend to," The nurse said, "I'm not in charge of knowing whether or not everyone is going to make it, I'm sorry."

Arkanas nodded, turning around he exited the sickbay. The hallway seemed so undamaged. Lights shone brightly, crew members hustled down it going about their daily duties. Just standing here, he would never know he had over 700 men and women dead and 400 wounded. More than half the crew was incapable of doing their job. That meant that the Kuthia was less than a half strength battlestar. It also meant that if the Cylons found them, they would be fish in a barrel.

He continued down the hallway, he was needed in the CIC, and from what he had heard from Kenpachi, the CIC had some serious of issues of its own to deal with. He pulled a folder from under his arm, which he had been carrying, and looking over it, he took out a damage report. The entire ship was outlined in red. Arkanas sighed, if this was in any other situation, the Kuthia would be scrapped.

Entering an elevator he punched the deck '22' button and waited as the grinding noise of the lifting mechanism to engage. He folded the manila folder and tucked it under his arm again, as the lift jostled and shook. A day ago it was a smooth ride; today wasn't so pleasant, especially when the lights started flickering. Finally the lift opened onto the twenty-second deck and Arkanas exited, perhaps slightly faster than was necessary. He took a right into the CIC and looked out across it, damaged or not this was his ship and he would see her make it through this dilemma.

_PICON – 7 YEARS PRIOR_

_The sun shone brightly as Amanda walked down the road, a bag slung across her shoulder. She had just gotten through high school, a feat in and of itself. If her life had been normal she would have gone to college, but now she had to make a decision for her mother's sake. After Amanda had lost her father 5 years ago, the income to the family had been laid upon the shoulders of her mother. A weight that was difficult to bear with the memory of a loved one's death so close at hand._

_She rounded the corner and looked across the beautiful blue ocean, rolling gently and peacefully. No one would have known it had claimed the life of her father not five years ago. She turned into her driveway and walked up to the door. She paused slightly before opening it. Her mother sat at the table looking many decades older than she had a few years ago. A lit cigarette smoked in her hands as she read over a red slip of paper._

"_Mother," Amanda said quietly._

"_What is it?" Her mother snapped._

"_What happened?"_

"_I got fired."_

_Amanda pursed her lips, "I'm not going to college."_

"_What?" Her mother looked up from the piece of paper._

"_I signed up with the Colonial fleet," Amanda responded._

"_Why?" Her mother tried holding back a tear._

"_Mother, look around you. You set aside the money for me to go to college, but you need it more than I do. Especially since … well especially now," Amanda said._

_The silence filled the room for a moment, "Why not go into the Picon Traders Guild, or the Sea command?"_

"_Seriously Mother," Said Amanda, "Look how the last person in our family who boarded a sailing vessel ended up."_

"_Your father was happy where he was." Her mother argued._

"_My father is dead," Amanda snapped, "I'm not going to end up missing in some gods forsaken shit hole known as the ocean."_

_The silence continued and then Amanda's mother broke down into a flow of heavy tears. Amanda walked over to comfort her but she shook her off ran into her room and slammed the door. Amanda let out a sigh and collapsed into a chair. Deep in her heart, Amanda knew she had done the right thing, but watching what was happening to her mother now took its toll on her soul._

_After a few minutes she wrote on the red piece of paper, 'I Love You Mother' and got up and left the house. At the end of the driveway she looked back and saw the house. She waved a farewell to it before she finally turned around and kept walking._

OVER TAURON – PRESENT DAY

Amanda felt a tingling sensation in her extremities; she could tell that her Oxygen was very low now. She didn't bother checking, feeling was beginning to recede from her fingertips. Her head was swirling and she was getting very tired. She tried clenching her fists but her muscles wouldn't respond. She drew in a breath but felt little relief.

She looked out across the battlefield, no Cylons had remained, but dozens of once mighty battlestars drifted helplessly. Most were in pieces; a few were intact but burning. Amanda wondered what had become of the Revelation. If she had survived they would have sent a rescue bird by now. The only problem with that hope was that the rescue birds needed to be piloted and all the pilots were here, most of them were dead for sure.

Amanda tried sucking in another breath; her body began to spasm with the lack of oxygen. She felt her breathing increase involuntarily. All of a sudden she couldn't breathe any longer no matter how much she did. She tried and tried but to no avail. Things began to darken as she struggled for consciousness, and then everything vanished into the encroaching dark and the edge of her vision.

_PICON – 4 YEARS PRIOR_

_Amanda turned her viper hard to the left dodging the training marker by inches. She brought it about and pummeled the daylights out of the last training drone. She looked at her clock; the time had just reached 37 seconds. She had just broken the infamous Starbucks record. Coming about she aimed at the Athena's deck. Coming in she landed the bird and popped the hatch and jumped out. Three other viper pilots ran up to her to high fived her._

"_GO, GO, GO," They yelled._

_From the back of the flight deck walked a white blond haired woman, wearing a colonial fleet uniform, her eyes would cut through anything. Amanda snapped to attention and brought her hand to her forehead. The woman looked her over._

"_Very well done," The officer said, "And get out of that salute nugget."_

_Amanda dropped her salute._

"_You pulled some risky moves, and you obviously weren't thinking at all about the consequences had you ruined the viper in that close turn you pulled at the end of that simulation. Maybe my name for you is better than I thought, well Coyote?" Starbuck looked into her eyes, "not thinking is good Lieutenant; it means you don't over think, and that's what will frack you up."_

"_Lieutenant, sir?" Asked Amanda._

"_You just passed your test Coyote," Starbuck said, while turning to look to the left "She's all yours commander."_

_Amanda nearly jumped with joy and then she saw a young man walking up to her. His hair had the smallest bit of grey streaking the sides, but aside from that he was young and handsome. He wore a colonial uniform and on his neck was pinned the commander's wings._

"_Welcome to my crew," The man said holding out his hand._

"_Sir, thank you sir" Amanda said._

"_The names Venerus, Verric Venerus, commanding officer of the Revelation, your to be one of my pilots," Said Venerus with a smile, "Also this letter arrived earlier today, from home I believe. Report for duty at 0700 tomorrow, Captain Marron will want to see you."_

_They saluted each other. A commander had come to personally say hello. Amanda was absolutely thrilled; she might even have her own battlestar someday. She tore open the envelope that Venerus had handed to her and read it. Her smile began to fade and she collapsed to the deck. The letter was from her closest friend from Picon._

Dear Amanda

I'm sorry to tell you this, I couldn't reach you any other way. Your mother burned her house down the other day, and the body has just been identified. I'm so sorry, if there is anything you need just let me know.

Sincerely, John

_Amanda began to cry uncontrollably, three pilots and several deck hands came to surround her and comfort her. Tears rolled down her face and her heart nearly stopped._

OVER TAURON – PRESENT DAY

"CLEAR!" Came a strange voice.

Amanda's eyes opened as she looked at the brownish metal top of a raptor. A man kneeled above her with two defribulators. Amanda coughed and gasped for air, the fresh oxygen filled her lungs and then her whole body started tingling.

"We thought we lost you," Said the man.

"Where … who …" Amanda could barely speak.

"I'm colonel Midren of the gunstar Amara," Said the man, "we are here to help you."

BATTLESTAR REVELATION

Venerus sat starring at the glowing white table of the Battlestar's CIC. He glanced up at the clock that was ticking away. It was closing in on the final few minutes, signifying the loss of all the pilot's air in the standard supplies allotted them. He tapped his fingers impatiently on the table, waiting for Lillian to come back with an idea. Venerus had been trying to think of something on his own but the simple truth was that he couldn't.

"Sir, two minutes remaining," Reeds voice came from the front of the small command center within the CIC.

"I can see that Mr. Reed," Venerus replied looking up at the large numbers on the screen just above him that counted down every second; "Spin up FTL drives one, two, and three and prepare for a combat jump."

"Yes sir," Reed replied.

Venerus looked down again at the glowing table, "All hands, action stations, bring the ship up to condition 1."

"All hands action stations, set condition one throughout the ship, this is not a drill," Shiaks voice echoed over the com speaker.

The claxons began to sound and red lights began to twirl as the ship went into combat status. Venerus clenched his fist in frustration. No one had been able to come up with any rescue plan; no one had ever considered this possibility before. Since when could Cylons just shut down Viper squadrons and battlestars with the flick of a switch?

The doors hissed open and Lillian walked in. She rounded the table as the three doors hissed shut behind her. Standing opposite the combat table she looked him in the eye. A look of conviction flashed across her face.

"We have an idea," Said Lillian, "But it's going to require raptor pilots."

"And where would we get those raptor pilots from?" Venerus inquired.

"We only need two raptors sir, and I know of two pilots in this room, you and me." Lillian said.

Without hesitation Venerus picked up the phone and put it to his mouth and flicked on a direct channel to the flight deck, "Sara, get me two Raptors, prepped and ready for rescue ASAP," he put the phone down and turned to Lillian, "and how are two raptors going to save 1000 pilots?"

Lillian pulled an air canister off her belt and held it up, "We'll deploy these."

Venerus smiled, he could always count on his XO to come up with an insane plan, "One of us has to take CIC, but I happen to know that Sara can also fly a Raptor."

"Already on it," Lillian said, as she made for the exit, "I'll be back before you know it."

"You better," Venerus shot back, "I want those Raptors in one piece."

Lillian left the room and as the doors shut behind her he turned to stare at the clock again, it was down to a minute and thirty seconds "JUMP!"

The ship seemed to elongate before his eyes as a humming sound built up to an imminent overcharge, and then the entire room went blindly white for a split second and then returned to standard appearance. The sound of all the Revelations systems recharging was heard and then the familiar sound of Lillians voice announced that they had just departed the ship for search and deploy operations.

"Gun batteries ready and waiting," came Shiak's voice.

"Dradis!" Called Venerus looking up at his screen where thousands of dots jumbled the screen making it impossible to comprehend.

"Unknown, most of this soup is sensor echoes, or debris, I can't find any Cylon's," Said Reed.

Venerus tilted his head back to observe his screen with the Dradis moving back and forth across the screen. Venerus sighed with relief. He looked down at his glowing command table and let the feeling wash over him.

"Find my pilots and bring them home, "He said to Lillian even though she couldn't hear him.

"Captain," Came Reeds voice, "Contact baring to port."

"Target the base ship," Venerus said.

"Receiving Colonial transponders, sir," Reed replied.

Venerus thought for a second, could another ship have survived? He turned to Mr. Moore, "Send hostile challenge and request ID."

Moore nodded and began to talk into his phone. Venerus turned back to the Dradis display just above his head. The line at the top moved back and forth displaying red and green dots and each time the orange wave passed over them they changed locations. The mesh of red and green dots ended almost an inch away from the red screen. They should have been able to see the planet.

"Captain," Moore broke into his thoughts, "We are receiving Colonial IDCs, and they appear to be authentic, the gunstar Amara."

Venerus nodded and picked up his phone, "Patch me through."

"Aye sir."

"This is Revelation actual requesting to speak with Amara actual," Venerus said.

"Revelation, this is Amara actual, it's nice to hear your voice Verric," Came a familiar voice over the phone.

"Professor!" Venerus said his voiced gasping for breath out of astonishment.

"I'm glad you remember me," The man replied.

"Admiral it's been almost seven years," Venerus said, "I'm glad you survived. We are on a rescue mission for our pilots."

"We've picked up upwards of 700 pilots who managed to eject or otherwise survive the Cylon attack. We can't support them over here, how much air does that Orion class monstrosity actually have?" The Admiral replied.

"Enough we'll dock with you shortly and take on the pilots, I think I may owe you one," Venerus said.

"That's two you owe me commander, but that's a subject for another time," Said the Admiral.

BATTLESTAR KUTHIA

Chad walked down the hallway; he had to duck several times to avoid slamming into the heavy objects that had collapsed in the last battle. The sounds of ship repair crews drilling and hammering at the hull echoed throughout the ship making it very hard to sleep or get some peace or quiet. Chad by this point had become very agitated. A woman in civilian clothing walked by, Chad shook his head, civilian contractors or designers should not be allowed down here.

Doing a turn around on his heels he retraced his steps towards the woman. After catching up with her he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. She stopped and looked around, her long blonde hair dangled gently around her face, and her eyes seemed to bore into his.

"What do you want?" She said in a soft accent.

"Civilians are not allowed down here, I'm sure we can accommodate your needs, but at the moment you must stay in your cabin. I'm afraid we have a situation." He said after looking around at the hallway.

She nodded, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

"Well now you do, please step come with me," Chad said.

The woman nodded and began to walk with Chad, moments later Chad watched as the wall came flying at him, or maybe he was flying at the wall. The collision hurt either way, with his head throbbing from the impact he got up and threw a punch at the civilian who caught it and twisted his arm. The battle of strength went on for a few moments as Chad tried to force her hand back. She was not particularly muscular, and yet she had immense strength, something was wrong. Slowly she pushed his hand down and then through him to the ground.

"What the frack," Chad shouted.

He got up again refusing to give into this civilians protests, although her strength was not proportionate to her size or gender, he looked her in the eye again.

"Who are you? " Chad asked quietly trying to put her at ease.

"Oh please human," Her accent cut him now, "your kind never did have much intelligence."

"You're a Cylon, but how is that possible?" Chad said.

She smiled, "That is one thing you will not live to find out."

Reaching into her bosom she pulled out a small black box and showed it to him. Chad jumped back in fear, he slowly stepped back.

"You know what this is, then," She said.

"That's a heavy explosive block used during the first Cylon war, it was banned to its unpredictable nature," He said, "Do you know what would happen to either of us if you dropped that?"

"Oh I know exactly what would happen, and I know exactly what it will do, you see I can predict what this block will do if I drop it just right, and obviously you do too," She said, "Your loyalty is admirable, but it won't be enough to save this ship.

She dropped the block. It fell towards the floor and Chad turned and ran. He bolted into a bathroom and slammed the door. The sound of an explosion was heard seconds later. First the deck vibrated and then an alarm blared once and the door exploded in and flew right towards Chad. The nine hundred pounds of solid metal smashed into the floor right next to him on its edge where it lost its balance and again came for Chad, but hit the wall and leaned there as fire burst around it and flooded the hallway, moments later, the explosion had passed.

Chad crawled out from underneath the door, which seemed to have protected him. Coughing slightly as he inhaled a little too much smoke, he crawled onto his feet. Blood dripped from his head; he reached up and touched it. It was nothing more than a deep scratch. He leaned out of the bathroom and saw a burning fire.

"Damn," He said, "This cannot be good."

* * *

><p>AN

No Chad this cannot be good. The Cylon model who just suicide bombed the Kuthia is a 3, if you don't know what I mean when I say that then go and actually watch and or read Battlestar. So with that little tidbit of info I leave you until next time. ChaoslordZX out


End file.
